Ted Thompson’s Draft Philosophy, Etc.

If you’ve ever wondered what it is, wonder no more. Here it is, in one sentence: “I think quantity and quality go hand in hand when it comes to this.”

In his post-draft press conference, Thompson was asked whether he felt like he needed more quality than quantity in this draft. Here is the rest of his response.

“I think first of all, as we’ve said before, I think 10 picks are better than six picks. But you don’t want to sacrifice too much to get the 10 picks because if you have 10 picks, you have a better chance of finding, you know, the odds are better. And Ron always believed in this, at the same time you don’t want to move just for the sake of accumulating picks if you’re going to sacrifice something that you’re trying to do in terms of building up your team. So it’s sort of a gut call.”

The entire transcript is here. Some highlights. Thompson on the two offensive linemen:

[Josh Sitton] was wearing a Hawaiian short and shorts when he was here in I think March, so he doesn’t know anything about Wisconsin yet. But he’s a tough guy. He blocks his guy and he’s one of those guys that maybe isn’t always the prettiest guy in the world, but we think he’ll fit in good with our group. And Geno (who?), I’m not going to even try and say his last name. What is his name? Breno Giacomini. Geno?He’s a former tight end. He’s still growing into being the sized guy you’re looking for, but he’s got a big frame, big legs, very athletic. When I was in there in the fall, specifically I was kind of watching quarterback, but when we go scouting we scout everybody that’s on the list. And he was much admired by the staff there. He is the horse there in terms of attitude and loving the game and liking challenges and things like that. We liked his competitiveness. We talked to him at the Combine, our coaches got a chance to visit with him and we think he has a bright future.

On Jermichael Finley:

He’s a young man, he’s a very young man, a true junior I think. It wasn’t overly a concern to us. With juniors you always have to be a little bit cautious because you don’t scout them as much as you do seniors. And seniors you scout a whole year coming up and junior you start scouting in January. So sometimes you have to be careful about that but we felt like he’s a talented kid that can get up the field. He’s got excellent hands, very athletic and our coaches were very excited about him joining Donald.

On Jeremy Thompson:

We had him rated really high and we liked him. He’s the brother or Orrin. He’s a good player. Good size, good length, he can run. We liked him and we were surprised he was still there, which, was the impetus for us to try to make the move to get him.

Thompson also said that he had running backs that he liked, but the way the draft unfolded they were gone by the time the Packers picks came up. Also, he said Craig Nall was not likely to be a Packer next year. And with that they’re working on free agents.